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Don’t Miss the Opportunity to Help Reduce Food Waste – Support the Food Recovery Act

January 17, 2016

Every congressional session thus far this century has been among the least productive and least popular in our history. Add to that the media circus that is the U.S. presidential campaign circa 2016 and you might come to understand how expectations for the last year of the 114th United States Congress came to be so low. Few anticipate that Republicans, Democrats and a lame-duck President Barack Obama will agree on much of anything in the coming year.

As with the recent release of the National Commission on Hunger’s report – a bipartisan endeavor which scared the bejesus out of the American Beverage Association with the suggestion that sugary drinks be excluded from SNAP purchases – there remains the occasional opportunity for progress.

Rep Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) believes this may be the year for a big leap forward with a comprehensive approach to the food waste problems of our food and agricultural systems via her Food Recovery Act, but she needs to build public support to help get it done.

Read on for her press release of December 7, 2015. Follow the link below to pressure Congress for action on the measure. Continue to the bottom of the page for a video courtesy of Rep. Pingree.

Food Recovery Act would help clarify misleading “sell-by” dates on many products

(Portland, ME) At a press event at the Portland Food Co-Op, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree said she will be introducing a bill today in Congress aimed at reducing the amount of food that is wasted each year in the United States. The Food Recovery Act includes nearly two dozen provisions to reduce food waste across the economy.

“Forty percent of all food produced in the United States each year is wasted,” Pingree said. “The Food Recovery Act takes a comprehensive approach to reducing the amount of food that ends up in landfills and at the same time reducing the number of Americans who have a hard time putting food on the table.”

Pingree was joined by dozens of people representing groups and organizations from throughout Maine as she announced the bill today. Representatives from Hannaford Supermarkets, the Good Shepherd Food Bank, Portland Food Co-Op and Agri-Cycle Energy all spoke at the press conference.

At the consumer level, Pingree’s bill requires any manufacturer who wants to put a date on their food to use the words “Best if used by” and also—in letters just as big—the words “Manufacturer’s suggestion only.”

“Currently there are NO federal laws regarding expiration dates,” Pingree said. “Manufacturers can go overboard with the dates they put on food—and it can lead to consumers and retailers throwing out perfectly good food.”

“Wasted food costs us over $160 billion a year in this country,” Pingree said. “That works out to about $125 a month for a family of four. We can save money and feed more Americans if we reduce the amount of food that ends up getting sent to landfills.”

“Wasting food is bad for the economy, bad for the environment and bad for Americans who are struggling to afford healthy food to feed their families. Congresswoman Pingree is a national leader on sustainable food and farming and I’m glad she’s taking on this huge issue of wasted food,” Collichio said.

Jonathan Bloom, author of American Wasteland and WastedFood.com, called Pingree’s bill a roadmap to reducing wasted food.

“Today is a great day for Americans who love food and hate waste,” Bloom said. “In fifteen years, we may well look back on this bill as a watershed moment in the fight against food waste. “

Emily Broad Leib, Director of Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic, said Pingree’s bill tackles an important problem with the nation’s food supply.

“Food waste is one of the most pressing environmental and economic issues facing our food system, yet so much of the food we waste could go to better use in our households or shared with people in need. This groundbreaking legislation offers assistance to farmers and retailers, supports food recovery organizations, and helps consumers by clarifying the senseless date labels that appear on foods. It thus achieves many of the goals our clinic has advocated over the past few years and we are thrilled to work in support of its passage,” Broad Leib said.